{"id":63823,"date":"2026-08-11T13:00:10","date_gmt":"2026-08-11T13:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/63823\/"},"modified":"2026-08-11T13:00:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-11T13:00:10","slug":"an-airbus-a380-took-a-7-hour-flight-to-nowhere-after-u-turning-over-central-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/63823\/","title":{"rendered":"An Airbus A380 took a 7-hour flight to nowhere after U-turning over central Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"

Passengers on a trip from South Africa to London faced a 7-hour flight to nowhere.<\/p>\n

The British Airways Airbus A380 was already over five hours delayed before it took off.<\/p>\n

The double-decker airplane appeared to have an issue with its weather radar.<\/p>\n

British Airways<\/a> passengers spent seven hours on an airplane only to end up back where they started.<\/p>\n

Flight 54 departed Johannesburg last Saturday, bound for London, a journey that typically lasts around 10-and-a-half hours. It took off more than five hours behind schedule, at 2:45 a.m. local time.<\/p>\n

While it isn’t clear how many people were on board, the flight was operated by an Airbus A380<\/a>, the world’s largest passenger plane, with 469 seats in BA’s configuration.<\/p>\n

The double-decker jet flew north for about two hours before U-turning over the Democratic Republic of the Congo, according to data from Flightradar24.<\/p>\n

It headed back towards Johannesburg, but entered a holding pattern just north of the city.<\/p>\n

The quad-engine A380 would have been carrying huge amounts of fuel for its lengthy journey, which the pilots would need to jettison to reduce the airplane’s weight and ensure a safe landing.<\/p>\n

Flight-tracking data shows it flew in a circle for over two hours before coming in to land.<\/p>\n

Online aviation enthusiasts picked up a text message sent via the Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System, or ACARS, citing issues with the airplane’s weather radar \u2014 a key safety system so pilots can avoid storms.<\/p>\n

“We’re sorry for the inconvenience caused to customers after their aircraft returned to Johannesburg due to a technical issue,” a BA spokesperson said in a statement to Business Insider.<\/p>\n

“Following the aircraft’s return, our teams provided overnight accommodation and support, and worked to minimise disruption,” they added.<\/p>\n

If you enjoyed this story, be sure to follow Business Insider<\/a> on Yahoo.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Passengers on a trip from South Africa to London faced a 7-hour flight to nowhere. The British Airways…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":63824,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13021],"tags":[4616,19000,12400,29441,562,39599],"class_list":["post-63823","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-airbus","tag-airbus","tag-airbus-a380","tag-british-airways","tag-johannesburg","tag-south-africa","tag-weather-radar"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63823","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63823"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63823\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/63824"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63823"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63823"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63823"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}